Sydney Swans coach John Longmire addressed the media at the SCG on Monday afternoon.
Sydney is set to face Melbourne at the SCG on Friday night.
Here are some key quotes from the press conference.
Lance Franklin unavailable for Melbourne clash
“We’ve been mindful of him training and getting more training under his belt. He did some training last week, but he needs another full week of training this week. We think that’s the best course of action in regards to his preparation to play. We’ll see how he goes this week and we’ll make a call on him next week. He’s been feeling good. He’s been out there training and has been recovering quite well. He had a redo of that hamstring, so we can’t throw him in with a week of training under his belt. We want to make sure he is right to go, and that’ll require another couple of weeks of training.”
Jarrad McVeigh unavailable for Melbourne clash
“We’ll see how he goes at training this week and next week before we make a call on his availability for Round 23. I don’t want to speculate when we’re still three or four sessions away from making that call. We won’t be entertaining that speculation this week, and we’ll see how he goes next week.”
Farewell games
“I don’t think it’s fair to ask for your thoughts on the concept because every decision is different. If you generalise the concept you lose sight of every situation, which is what any decision in football is about. Every situation is different: what they’ve done, what they haven’t done, their preparation, what young players are playing and how many games they’ve played. All of that comes into the mix. I’d like to steer away from making a general statement on whether I believe or don’t believe in farewell games; it’s more about the situation. That’s the club’s situation and the player’s situation, and that has to be weighed up.”
Injury progress of Sam Naismith, Darcy Cameron
“Sam is a chance to play in the twos this week. Hopefully Darcy Cameron isn’t far away either in regards to getting some game time under his belt. Those big guys have missed a lot of footy for us this year, and it’d be good to see them back running around at some level by the end of the season.”
An opportunity to relish
“It’s another opportunity to play on Friday night at the MCG and you want to enjoy it – but you only get your enjoyment off the back of being competitive. When you compete and you push the opposition and you play a strong brand of footy – that’s when you get the enjoyment out of it. We’ve got to making sure that we go into it with a really determined, competitive mindset.”
Kieren Jack’s future
“We’re not looking into next year at the moment. We’ll look into this week and see what we need this week. He’s been very good with our younger players whether it’s here or on the road. But it’s about whether he can help us win next week or this week. That’s the biggest thing.”
